Lung cancer is currently the malignant tumor with the highest morbidity and mortality in the world, and the main type is non-small cell lung cancer. Immune checkpoint inhibitor is a landmark discovery in the history of cancer treatment, which rewrites the history of cancer treatment, and improves the medical treatment of advanced tumors by a big step forward. The article summarizes the research progress of therapeutic drugs against anti-programmed cell death protein and programmed cell death protein ligand antibodies in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. The principle of drug action, the differences in the diagnosis and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer in different clinical stages, and future research directions are discussed to provide the usage guidelines of immune checkpoint inhibitors for clinical oncologists.